


The years now before us

by Shae_la_Hyene



Series: Hurt Capri fics named after MLP fansongs [4]
Category: Captive Prince - C. S. Pacat
Genre: Emotional Hurt, Hurt, Illnesses, M/M, Terminal Illnesses, Through health and sickness
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-05
Updated: 2020-10-05
Packaged: 2021-03-08 00:34:36
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,016
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26842957
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Shae_la_Hyene/pseuds/Shae_la_Hyene
Summary: Laurent woke up suddenly.“Why did you stop ?” he asked, confused.“My bad,” said Damen with a smile. “Where were we ?”
Relationships: Damen/Laurent (Captive Prince)
Series: Hurt Capri fics named after MLP fansongs [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1948678
Comments: 22
Kudos: 47





	The years now before us

**Author's Note:**

> I never imagined I'd face them on my own...

Damen was watching Laurent sleep, a little smile on his lips.

He had always loved watching him sleep, even when his husband was doing something unkingly such as snoring or drooling. It was still time when Damen was allowed to watch him as much as he’d like, not caring for the other people around, or how self-conscious Laurent still was, awake.

Gently, he brushed away a strand of hair stuck in between Laurent’s lips, which startled his husband.

“Hum,” Laurent whispered, still in a fog of sleep, “why did you stop ?”

_Because you’ve been asleep for hours, Laurent…_

“Sorry,” Damen said instead, “I must have got distracted. You look very nice in that shirt.”

He smiled wide as his compliment managed to make Laurent blush.

“Just… read,” said Laurent, like he prevented himself to chastise Damen. “Please.”

After one last caress to his lover’s forehead, Damen did as he was told.

“I wouldn’t think you like akielon epic poems that much,” Damen had asked eventually.

Laurent had been asking him to read for him for a few days, by then, around an hour every night, and was listening ardently each time, his head in Damen’s lap.

“I don’t, but I like when you read them. I can hear you love them in the tone. I like that.”

Damen had felt ridiculously flattered at that, and didn’t ask further.

Now he felt warmth, mixed with pain, spread in his chest at the memory.

Laurent hadn’t told him he was losing his eyesight. Probably to spare him a few days or weeks of blissfully ignoring that their happiness had an ending. Damen had only know when he realized Laurent was completely blind, long after that.

He almost didn’t forgive himself for not noticing before, but Laurent insisted.

“Damen,” Laurent said, exasperated. “I am not dying yet, and I want to know the end of that story.”

Damen chuckled.

“Sorry, distracted again.”

Laurent sighed.

“I haven’t even gotten out of this bed in days, how can I still look distracting ?”

The tone was one of a joke, but Damen still heard the sliver of incertitude behind it.

“You’re the most beautiful person I have ever met, Laurent. And that bedshirt is very see-through.”

Laurent blushed even more and wrapped his arms self-consciously around himself.

“Shut up,” he said at Damen’s laugh. “Finish the story.”

Damen sighed dramatically.

“Well, if you insist, but I must state that I prefer talking about your beauty than of the young maiden there.”

“That’s because you have no taste for poetry,” came Laurent’s instantaneous answer.

Damen smiled again and started reading again.

The same disease that had taken his mother, so long ago. Laurent had recognized the signs, and after Paschal’s confirmation, chose to hide it from his husband.

He knew Damen would want to fight, and that there was nothing to fight. Even if Laurent was young. Way too young to die, in Damen's opinion...

He said he had been selfish, and only wanted a little longer of their happiness before telling him. Damen had wanted to fight, but Paschal said there was no point.

 _Just be with him_ , he had told Damen when he asked what he could do.

Damen made this a vow.

He had stayed in the good and bad days. When Laurent threw tantrums because a piece of furniture had been moved or because he couldn’t work. In ugly times when Laurent threw things his way or screamed at him to go. He stayed and held his husband in his arms until his walls of anger broke down, letting out the fear and the pain. Held him through the sobs and the tears. Laurent didn’t want to die like his mother.

“They didn’t even let me see her, she was all alone,” he had whispered against Damen’s chest once.

“You’re not alone,” Damen had answered.

“Damen,” asked Laurent softly, interrupting his reading.

Damen hummed in answer.

“Can you bury me where white flowers can grow ? I think… I think I’d like it. It would be beautiful.”

Damen felt his throat tighten, and fought back tears.

“Of course, my love, everything you want,” he said.

Laurent smiled, almost child-like, and squirmed on the bed until he was facing Damen, his head cushioned by Damen’s chest.

“Thanks !” he said lightly. “You’re very kind.”

Damen laughed. “Well, thank you.”

“I mean it,” Laurent continued. “People don’t know how kind you are.”

Damen combed his fingers in Laurent’s hair softly.

“You’ll have to make them, then,” he said.

“I will,” Laurent said, sounding determined. “That way everyone will swoon over you even more. I like when they do that, because I know they won’t have you. You’re mine.”

Damen laughed, and sighed dramatically.

“So many broken hearts, so many young maidens sobbing in the night,” he said. “All those, because you wouldn’t share.”

Laurent shrugged. “They had to learn, somehow.”

Damen pulled him closer to himself, kissing his temple.

“My heart was already all yours, you didn’t need to put that much effort into it.”

Laurent snorted.

“You call that not having to put effort ? I almost died before I could get you in my bed ! So yeah, forgive me if I brag about what a catch you are !”

Damen laughed, high and clear, and pulled his husband’s face closer to his so he could kiss him senseless.

Pulling away slowly, he noticed with delight that, even though Laurent couldn’t see, he had still unconsciously closed his eyes for Damen’s kiss.

Laurent hummed happily, and laid his head on Damen’s chest once again, obviously on the edge of falling asleep again.

“Stop reading, then, but tell me how the story ends,” he asked sleepily.

Pain squeezed at Damen’s chest, and he pushed it aside to answer.

“He wins, of course. And then he comes home to his lover who had been waiting for him all along.”

Laurent’s face scrunched up in an aborted snort.

“Boring,” he whispered, disappointed.

“There is nothing wrong with a happy ending,” Damen said with a smile.

Laurent hummed again, on the edge of consciousness.

“If you say so…”


End file.
